Hello and welcome to the Lost Medals Australia blog. On this blog I will tell the stories of our research and successes in returning lost medals to veterans of their families. I also hope that this blog will provide the best resource for understanding how to research Australian medals. If you need help please contacted me via email at

28 March 2013

To vote for the Lost Medals Australia blog in the People's Choice Award please click on the button. Once at the Best Blog Competition Page click on Vote Here then scroll down and tick Lost Medals Australia. At the bottom of the page click next until you are at the last page and fill in the details to validate your vote.
Thank you for voting for Lost Medals Australia.
Glyn

27 March 2013

I have been encouraged to enter the Best Australian Blog Competition. There is a People's Choice Award and voting starts at 1700 on 28 March 2013.
I'll add a link tomorrow for voting and hope that word will be spread amongst my readers.

20 March 2013

When medals are awarded they come in two sizes, full size
for normal wear and miniature for wearing to a dinner function. It is easy to
identify who was awarded the full size medals as there name is on them.
Identifying who received a miniature group is close to impossible. It is only
when other evidence about the veteran is included do we have a chance. This was
the case the miniature medals awarded to Lieutenant Owen Dawes where the medals
came with his card and a letter from him. Unfortunately, I have received many
other miniature medals that I have no hope of successfully returning.

However, in the same vein as the Dawes return, Bill has a
story of his own about miniatures.

With the growing appreciation in families of their parents
military service, the miniature medals that were issued to accompany their
larger counterpart, once often overlooked, have now come to the fore. This is
as families realise that there are two sets of medals in the family not just
one and which are just as important.

But researching miniatures or even attempting to carries its
own special set of problems, firstly they are not engraved, so that unless you
are very lucky and you find documentation that accompanies them, then finding
the original recipient or their next of kin, becomes remote. Often they end up
in RSL clubs, sometimes on display sometimes not, but essentially unknown,
unacknowledged and forgotten. That I find incredibly sad, it is to me,
unacceptable.

Our last foray in regard to a set of miniatures, to
Lieutenant Owen Dawes took over five years and that was even with a card that
had his name printed on it.

However, the situation with the receipt of the medals of VX24886 Jack Thomson, was different. As different as it
could be arriving as they did inside an old spectacles case, which in turn
had been wrapped in the perennial brown paper parcel. Luckily, what was included
in the case was the RSL life Membership Card of the recipient, Jack Thomson.
Along with a cryptic note asking for the medals to be returned to Jack’s
family.

Well first thought: “Glyn’s record is about to be broken”.
Surely the RSL Membership Card would assist? First the club administration - “No,
his membership was archived, and never put on computer”

Then the members - but the simple task of just asking
old members of the club “do you remember Jack Thomson?” Usually brought forward
the following:

“He was a lovely bloke!”

“Big fella, had a terrible sense of humour”

“Was in a retirement home around here?”

“I think he died some time ago, didn’t he?” a comment often
expressed to those quietly sitting around.

But no one actually seemed to remember when or from whence
Jack passed away.

The end result being that after several days of going
nowhere and with Glyn’s record well and truly preserved, I reverted to what
would have been my normal mode of operation, and in retrospect should have
been, if I had not opted for what I thought would be an easy option, of taking
the RSL Club route.

So then it was:

Check with War Graves for possible date of death (28
December 2005).

Check Ryerson for Death and Funeral notices.

Success! The Age and the Herald Sun provided 6 between them.

So now to the State Library and its newspaper archives, to
look up the newspapers. First to look up the funeral directors and secondly to try
and determine the rest of the family and their possible locations.

It was this after several hours of cross referencing back
and forward between old newspaper entries and the BDM’s that finally led me to
Jack’s son, Kenneth who now lives in NSW.

Ken was amazed when I rang, He thought Dad’s miniatures were
with the other medals which are with his brother in Darwin, whom he planned to
ring the moment we hung up.

But first came the inevitable series of questions. Of which
the best was “What was my dad’s medals doing in Kilmore? We have no relations
there, never have.”

But as is so often the case at the end of a search when I
sit down and review the search, the $64 question, and the one that Ken asked,
nearly always arises. How did the medal of an ex-serviceman who died in 2005,
in Bundoora get to Kilmore from whence they were sent to Jack’s old club in
February this year (2013)?

Well I can’t answer that question, and I am not going to
try, it may sound as a cop out but after more than a decade of returning medals
it is a question, whose path I now studiously avoid.

What is important is that Jack’s medals are going back to
his family, and as searches go I do not think I can ask for much more.

12 March 2013

681 Arthur Barnes was an early enlistee for WWI, signing up on 28 August 1914. When he enlisted he was the Town Clerk of Ulmarra in NSW. Being in such a position in the community might suggest that he would be commissioned. However, just like Burnett Gray from the St Kilda council, Arthur chose to enlist. He was one of the original soldiers of 1st Battalion, AIF. The 1st Battalion, including Arthur, landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was declared as missing in action on 29 April 1915 and later confirmed as killed in action on that day. Unfortunately, Arthur was reported as being injured and that he was seen by another soldier in August 1915. This information eventually filtered back to Arthur's family causing considerable confusion. Much of Arthur's service record is taken up with correspondence about Arthur's actual circumstances including letters written by a Member of Parliament. The slowness of communications and the lack of firm information added to the sense of frustration that can be read in Arthur's father's letters to the Army.The search for a relative of Arthur's was very frustrating but I got there in the end.Arthur Barnes was the son of Walter and Sarah
Jemima Barnes (nee Ware). Walter and Sarah Jemima had three other children but
none of them married. Sarah Jemima died in 1893 and Walter Barnes remarried Ellen
Townsend who became the step mother to Arthur.
As Arthur's siblings did not marry that line of the Barnes family has died out.
So I next started to look at cousins. This led me to Sarah Jemima's brother
Uriah Walter Ware. Uriah married Sarah Kate Barr. This was her second marriage,
the first to a Mr Moffat who died in a boating accident in the mouth of the Brisbane
River. Uriah took Sarah
Kate's children as step children.
I did follow another research path through the son of Walter’s second wife Elizabeth
Ellen. Ellen’s first husband also drowned, this time in Mackay in 1886. Ellen
had one son Samuel Edward Townshend. Samuel trained as a lawyer at Sydney University.
Prior to WWI he was the Register at the University of Western Australia. Samuel was commissioned in to the 16thBattalion, AIF on 2 August 1914. Samuel was also killed in action at Gallipoli,
this time at Quinn’s Post on 9 May 1915. In one of his letters to the Army about
Arthur, Walter mentions Samuel’s death. I learnt a lot of information about the
Towshend family from this link and would like to thank Colonel John Townsend and Doctor Richard Townsend for
it.
Samuel was the last of that line of the Townshend family and given the step
relationships on both sides of this family I believe that the Ware connection is the closest.
I have recently been in contact with the step great great grand son of Arthur’s uncle and it is to this family that two of Arthur’s three medals will be
returned.These medals are from the NSW RSL box. The returned medal tally is now 1255.

The following photo is of the 16th Battalion Officer's including Samuel Townshend.

Update 13 Mar 15
Nick is the relative of Arthur Barnes who I'll be sending the medals to. He has done some searching of his own and come up with two articles about Arthur in Egypt and Arthur's father's obituary.

Source: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/61646180

Source: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/61646180

Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16613760
At the same time I was looking in to this case, I have been researching an Albert Barnes and I did mix up the names Arthur and Albert but that is fixed now. There are also some formatting issues with the pictures and text I imported which I just can't quite fix.

'John’s British War Medal came to us courtesy of the
memorabilia section of the Victorian RSL after it was handed in to them.

John, who served in the 4th Australian Light Horse,
was more than qualified for his role; he stated that his employment prior to enlistment
was as a jockey. The attached photo, from the AWM, shows the 5ft 7in, 19 year old
Trooper Clifford looking every bit the jockey.

Born in Tipperary, Ireland, the
search for a next of kin was initially a daunting task. This is despite John,
who died in 1925 from injuries and health problems associated with his service,
coming from a large family. However, as I worked through the evidence, it
became clear that the only practical option was to follow the line from his
sister May Margaret Clifford through her marriage to Tom Guthrie. As a result
the Victorian Branch of the RSL will soon forward John’s medal to May’s grandson, Michael.'

Bill was very crisp with his research and was able to locate
Michael before the RSL could forward the medal to me. That means no picture of
the medal but I think the photo of John from the AWM is a fine substitute.

11 March 2013

The British Medals Forum has been mentioned many times in posts
on this blog and the blog roll contains a link to the site. It is also the site
others are most referred to if they are interested in expanding there knowledge, interested in medals awarded to Commonwealth countries or posting requests about stolen medals. Having endorsed the British
Medals Forum for many years it is now timely to review the site so that others
might consider joining.

The British Medals Forum is commonly referred to as the
BMF by members. It is a tightly run forum that is focused on medals, honours
and awards that are issued by Commonwealth countries. It is the peak research
forum on this subject on the web.

The BMF uses the phpBB forum package as its operating
format. This package is easy to use and navigate around. The BMF use of this
format offers the ability to browse by dedicated topic group or pre-selected groupings,
for example ‘New Posts’ which is on a 24 hour refresh cycle. The look of the
site is utilitarian but this is more to do with the phpBB format than the BMF
content. One criticism expressed by members is that the search function often
does not deliver expected results. Once again, this can be attributed to the
phpBB format and the search operation that is inherent in this package.

It is obvious that the site has a very niche focus on medals.
It is a free site which only requires an interested member to sign up to access
it. There is no advertising which is a credit to the site operators so there is
very little distraction on the site. There is an annual voluntary sponsorship
drive which provides the opportunity for members to contribute financially to
the running costs of the site and further push away the need for advertising.

The BMF has very clear set of rules which are strictly
enforced by the moderators. Topics that stray outside the forum theme are quickly
locked and deleted. Topics that have run their course in the discussion about
medals are also locked if the conversation strays, however, are left online if
the earlier discussions are of benefit to member education. The forum is moderated
by a group of very knowledgeable, hand selected enthusiasts. The moderators are
spread around the world so that they can bring their intimate knowledge of
there own countries medal system to the forum. This also allows for 24 hour
moderation and close to instantaneous action if the site is hit by spam or disagreement
occurs.

The combination of clear rules and decisive moderation
allows the BMF to stay completely focused on its primary objective which is the
discussion and knowledge sharing of issues related to Commonwealth medals. This
ensures relevance that pertains to the topic. As it is a forum, the different members
have different writing skills and provide different levels of contribution. The
forum has close to 3000 member, some of whom contributed rarely, if at all, and
others who are very active. An average day will see over 250 posts being made.

As the site name suggests this one is based in the UK. This is a
minor disadvantage to international users. The ‘New Posts’ refresh time means
that international posts often fall outside the reading list for the majority
of members when they are most likely to access the forum. To ensure maximum exposure an international
member needs to time contributions for shortly after the refresh time. This can be inconvenient and run the risk of gaps in the discussion given time differences. A second minor disadvantage is the name. When referring others
to this BMF, the question is often asked why join since it is the British Medal
Forum not the Australian Medal Forum. However, once a new member visits they
soon see that other Commonwealth countries are well represented and the title
is irrelevant. These are two very minor criticisms as it is hard find much at
fault with the BMF.

The strength of the BMF is the friendliness of the members and
their willingness to share the immeasurable knowledge that they have. New
members are made to feel part of the group and questions are answered with
speed and politeness. If not, the moderators are quick to act. This adds to the
quality of the posts and the research that is shared by members. It must be pointed
out that the subject of medals is the start point of many discussions which
often lead to previously unknown information about a soldier, his unit, his
home town, his family or any number of side topics. As long as there is a link
back to the original medal discussion the topics are free ranging.

The British Medals Forum is a no frills website. However,
the quality and depth of the research on the BMF belies this no frills
approach. The utilitarian aspect ensures no annoying advertising or spam which
adds to the enjoyment of members who are not distracted and can immerse in
their hobby.

For anyone with even a passing interest in medals awarded to
Commonwealth countries this is a highly recommended website.

07 March 2013

Even though I only posted about Roy Morgan yesterday I thought this was a good enough reason to write an update. This afternoon Roy's family posted the following comment:

Hello Glyn,I would like to sincerely thank you for you diligent
effort in locating my mother to return my dad's stolen medal.
Fortunately my nephew had one of dad's medals mounted with a photo of
dad soon after his passing now we have all of his medals once more. We
as Roy's family are so grateful for their return.

Thank you again Roy's family

This is fantastic news, Roy's medals will be reunited following this return.

06 March 2013

In recent posts I have spoken about how wonderful it has been to assist the Victorian Police Force on several occasions. This time I have the pleasure of helping out the Western Australian Police Force.
Last week I received an email from Peter W of the Perth Police Station. He had a WWII War Medal and a WWII 60th anniversary commemorative coin and requested that I have a search for the family.
The medal, awarded to WX41637 Roy Frederick William Morgan, arrived in today's post. This afternoon I had a brief look at Roy's entries in the electoral rolls. This brief look turned in to the whole story unravelling at the rapid rate. I quickly established Roy died in 2002 and that his wife's name was Elsie. A check of the White Pages provided a phone number of a person with the same initials living around the corner from the address listed in the 1980 electoral roll. Always keen to take a punt on leads like this I rang the number and within 5 minutes of deciding to have a brief look at Roy's trail I was speaking to Elsie (sorry Bill).
Elsie tells me that she had been burgled in the past and lost many personal items and money. She wasn't worried about the money but she and her daughters were very upset at the loss of Roy's medals. Now one can be retuned.
The returned medal tally is now 1252.